Zoho identifies Australia as key market in global expansion

It’s the software giant that you’ve probably never heard of, but Zoho has ambitious plans to take on its tech rivals, with Australia emerging as a key market.

Zoho co-founder and chief executive Sridhar Vembu speaking at the Zoholics conference in Austin, Texas.

It’s the global software giant that you’ve probably never heard of, but Zoho has ambitious plans to take on its rivals, with Australia emerging as an important growth market in the company’s bid to expand its global footprint.

The Indian multinational already has thousands of customers in Australia using its extensive portfolio of business apps, which includes an online office suite as well as cloud-based apps serving a range of business functions – from sales, marketing and customer support, to finance, human resources and back-office operations.

Australia has been among the company’s top 10 markets for at least a decade, but Zoho is making a renewed push in the region after setting up its first permanent office in the country in 2019.

In March it announced it was making Adelaide home to its new Australian headquarters, with plans to create 50 new positions over the next three years.

Speaking on the sidelines of Zoho’s flagship annual conference – Zoholics – held in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, co-founder and chief executive Sridhar Vembu said Australia had emerged as a key market.

Zoho chief executive Sridhar Vembu.

“We’re expanding our presence there, investing more, and part of the Adelaide expansion is as we grow we want to make sure our staff there can put down roots, grow with us and have an affordable cost of living and quality of life,” he said.

“That’s what we’re really looking for, because happy employees make for happy customers, and then long-term business.

“So far, so good, it’s going well. We’re going to expand more and in the next few years we’ll see steady expansion.”

Zoho was founded in 1996, in Chennai, India, by a group of co-founders including Mr Vembu, who’s estimated by Forbes to have amassed a $US4.7bn fortune, making him India’s 46th richest person.

Mr Vembu and his siblings remain majority owners of Zoho, which is nearing $US1.5bn in annual revenue, with more than 750,000 customers globally using its suite of business apps.

The decision to set up in Adelaide is reflective of Zoho’s broader philosophy of avoiding large commercial centres, instead opting for regional areas and smaller cities where the company can provide opportunities for developers, programmers and other skilled workers who would otherwise be forced to relocate to pursue their careers.

Zoho’s global headquarters remains in Chennai, while it moved its US headquarters from Silicon Valley to the emerging tech hub of Austin in 2019.

Zoho chief strategy officer Vijay Sundaram at the Zoholics conference in Austin, Texas.

Zoho chief strategy officer Vijay Sundaram, who oversees the global growth strategy, said there were around 20 Zoho employees on the ground in Australia, mostly in Adelaide, where the company had chosen to ramp up its workforce with more roles in marketing, sales and consulting.

Zoho is looking to build on its roots as a supplier to small and medium-sized businesses, while also targeting larger companies that may be attracted to its pitch as a value-for-money all-in-one software provider.

Customer relationship management is the main game for the company, pitting it against market giant Salesforce, which commands close to a quarter of the global CRM market.

Mr Sundaram said Zoho’s products were typically well-suited to businesses operating in services industries, such as marketing companies, consulting firms and accountants.

“They require a lot of our tools that are largely in the area of workflow management, communication, co-ordination, content management, content production, all of these is part of the core of what we do,” he said.

The reporter attended Zoho’s Zoholics conference in Austin as a guest of the company

Originally published as Zoho identifies Australia as key market in global expansion